The Amazing Spider-Nin
by KyuubiWindscar
Summary: A bite from a spider on his way to the Genin Exams changes the entire course of Uzumaki Naruto's life and career. He must become something greater than himself to handle the great power, and responsibility, bestowed upon him as he becomes the hero he's always wanted to be.


**Chapter 1: One More Day**

* * *

Today was the day!

Uzumaki Naruto ran top speed towards the academy, excited about his future as a shinobi of Konoha. Sure, he had failed this exam because the ninjutsu portion was rigged against him somehow, but this year he would take the world by storm! Nothing would hold him back. Not whatever situation that had put a lot of the elder shinobi on high alert this week, not the smugness of his rival, or the machinations of his teachers. He was ready for the first step to becoming Hokage!

In his excitement, Naruto failed to notice a small pail in the road and ended up tripping over it. He flailed valiantly but still ended up with his face in the dirt and his pride shattered to pieces. Slow to get up while mumbling curses, Naruto searched for the offending object in order to teach it a lesson in manners. Without wasting too much time, he kicked the pail clear over the fence and began to brush the dirt of his jumpsuit before taking off towards the academy. In his frenzied state, he almost did not register the feeling of something crawling on his skin.

It still was not enough time to stop the strange looking arachnid from biting him, pumping his veins full of venom.

 **OoOoO**

Somehow, the world of the hyperactive blond had flipped upside down.

Firstly, Naruto had never been sick a day of his life. Well, excluding the times he had eaten rotten food because he did not understand that dairy and produce expires after a certain amount of time. Even then, he would only have a stomach ache and maybe a slight woozy feeling for about an hour before a bathroom trip or four brought him back to full health. Somehow, the venom from that spider had done what every other pathogen had failed to do: put him in the hospital overnight. Luckily, no lasting damage had been detected and he had been allowed to leave that next morning.

Secondly, he was unable to take the Genin Exams due to his being incapacitated during the scheduled slot. While there were provisions in place for retakes in case of emergencies like this, Mizuki had been arrested for treason the same night. All the teachers were currently undergoing the mandatory two month ANBU surveillance procedures, and all retakes were postponed until this period was over.

All in all, one little spider had effectively ruined the life of Uzumaki Naruto before it could truly even start.

Seething over his rotten luck, Naruto sprinted from the Konoha General Hospital towards the training grounds in order to blow off some steam. Any other plans could wait until he cleared his head from all of the negative thoughts he had started to harbor since the Sandaime had come to tell him about the possibility that he would have to repeat _another_ year at the Academy...

 **OoOoO**

Naruto, alone in the clearing, stood punching a training post, relentless in his attacks. The events of the past day played through his mind, adding more malice with every strike. He swung harder, and faster, progressively leaving more noticeable damage on the dummy. As the unbidden memory of the Hokage personally telling him that he would need to repeat yet _another_ year at the academy came into his consciousness, Naruto poured all his anger and rage into one final punch accompanied by a grunt.

In that moment, something about his body simply 'clicked', and strength level multiplied by nearly a thousand. His punch went from what would have been a really deep dent to completely obliterating the dummy almost completely.

Naruto fell flat on his face from the unexpected lack of resistance, nearly eating a mouthful of dirt due to his gaping maw. He got up almost as quickly as he fell, with a grace that he never knew he possessed. Taking a moment to pat his body for any foreign elements that could have poisoned him, he found nothing but the hay from the training dummy.

"I must have hit a weak point or something, no way I did that with just one punch," said Naruto.

He flexed and unflexed his hand, feeling almost no difference from before he destroyed the helpless human stand-in other than a slight tightness in his muscles. He looked at the dummy next to it, and resolved to try another one of his punches. He knew that he was not _that_ strong, no matter what his ego tried to tell him otherwise. Cocking back a fist, Naruto swung at the dummy's head with about half the strength of his prior blow to test his theory.

He got his answer when he knocked the dummy's head off of its shoulders and caused the chest to tear open and a considerable amount of hay fell out.

"No...no way. This...this is impossible!"

Naruto grabbed the head of the dummy and nervously shuffled it in his hands. Or rather, he tried, but the thing was stuck to his hands by some unknown force. He held his hands out and tried to shake it out of his hands, but gravity would not reclaim its forsaken dummy skull. After a moment of panic, Naruto inhaled deeply in order to calm himself and think more clearly. As he exhaled, however, whatever had attached the head to his hands had returned to its home country and allowed it to fall harmlessly to the ground.

Naruto's eyes shot around the training ground, making sure nobody had seen what had just happened before hastily placing the head back on the shoulders of the dummy and taking off in a mad dash into the trees.

 **OoOoO**

Sitting alone in his apartment, Naruto was attempting to meditate to calm his mind. In the past few days, his bodily changes had manifested themselves one by one. His amazing physical strength and durability came up first in the clearing, but he found that his senses were nearly twice as sharp if he focused correctly as he made his way home with his new speed. He did not even need to use chakra for his new powers, but they varied greatly based on his overall level of bodily arousal.

The only ability he had truly mastered had been his odd ability to 'stick' to objects. Unlike his other abilities, it _did_ use chakra, but the chakra itself was not what was used to stick to objects. It activated something inside of his skin that created an attractive force that was greater than he could even properly comprehend. Which, as Naruto quickly began to find out, was a whole lot more than he previously could. Before he learned primarily by doing, figuring out complex ideas by applying them rather than trying to understand the theories and forces behind them first. Now, he found his ability to use logic and reason increased vastly enough that he could comprehend just how impossible it should be.

His first thoughts when he had destroyed the training dummies were all pointing towards telling the Hokage about his abilities, but he was not sure how the old man would take the news. He pondered over it for the next day, but he decided on waiting until he had a full grasp on what he could and could not do before telling anyone about it. So, he spent the next few days doing the physical exam he had taken before entering the academy and comparing his previous results.

He started with push-ups, but after fifteen minutes he deduced that his brain would get sick of the repetitive motion long before his body would feel fatigue. He figured testing endurance would also be a waste of time, as he already set the record in that category when he first arrived. He also had not gotten the least bit exhausted after nearly a hundred push ups earlier. He then elected to test what had been his worst physical attribute: balance. After walking in the straight line without once needing to teeter to either side the first twenty times, Naruto tried to add as many arbitrary obstacles to himself as possible. In the end, he walked a line of ninja wire held up by two kunai stuck into his wall on opposite sides while holding scrolls in each hand and books placed on his head. He did not even flinch as he crossed the length of his room several times on top of the wire.

His tests did not go without some outside interference, however, as he threw his kunai into the wall a bit harder than he had planned after the unexpected sound of ants crawling on the floor startled him. After calming himself, he tried to test his reflexes, but he could not think of a suitable test without overloading his own brain and causing his senses to go haywire. And so, he turned to mediation to gather himself once more and try to figure out an idea that would work.

"Gahh, I can't think of anything! This shouldn't be this hard! How did I practice my reflexes before? I can only remember dodging stuff during sparring and sometimes after a prank..."

Having found his eureka moment, Naruto deviously chuckled as he planned a prank with his newfound abilities as a 'test'.

 **OoOoO**

The sounds of chaos in the streets of Konoha was a cacophony in the ears of the hyperactive blond. If he were completely honest with himself, the mix of frantic energy surrounding him and his adrenaline rush from being chased by chuunin that were as experienced as long as he was old was a feeling as close to nirvana as he could currently find.

The screams and calls for him to stop and give up blended into those cursing him for all the damages the paint ridden animals released from the pet store and veterinary clinic had caused. Combined with his new physical prowess, which he toned down in order to remain secret, Naruto made his previous escapades with the ninja assigned to the unenviable job of chasing him down look like a child's game of tag.

He could dart in and out of enclosed spaces with his new speed, traverse rough terrain with his agility and balance, hide in plain sight by using his new adhesion ability to stick to walls without giving off a noticeable amount of chakra, and he almost always knew when his 'enemies' were sneaking up on him with an almost precognitive ability he had seemingly developed overnight.

Currently, Naruto was hiding out in an old military storehouse filled with random bits of junk all over. His would be captors had closed in on his location, sweeping the entire building in order to bring the blond to justice. Determined to keep the chase going, Naruto ran interference by setting up objects to fall a distance away from his true location. His plan worked so far, as none of the chuunin following him could track him with any means other than sight and sound.

While holding on to a wall, the mutated ninja-to-be saw something in one of the large boxes that had been opened. Investigating, he found a pair of what looked like wrist bound projectile launchers. They looked to be more early prototypes that had gotten canned, as they were clunky with complicated mechanisms all over. Naruto grabbed both of them and placed them in his weapons pouch, hoping he could find a use for them later. Underneath the contraptions were small metal containers labeled 'ninja wire' numbered in what Naruto guessed to be the hundreds. He pocketed a dozen or so, noticing that they fit into a slot on the launchers pretty easily.

Unfortunately for the young Naruto, his evasive luck chose to run out at that very moment. As he tried to jump out of the box, he found himself caught in no less than three nets that had been placed in anticipation of his emergence. He struggled and struggled, but he could not tear any of the mesh without revealing too much about his new abilities.

"You think you're so smart, don't you, Naruto? Well, we've got you now. Maybe now the Hokage will actually punish you for all this trouble you cause," said one of the chuunin.

While normally always ready to retort with comment of some sort, Naruto chose this instance to quietly seethe. Partially because he could not believe he got caught, partially because he was already planning his next move.

 **OoOoO**

Naruto noted that the Old Man had at least partially updated his 'You should know better, Naruto' speech a bit since the last time he was in his office. Even if it was just the admission that Naruto's childish antics were now just plain embarrassing for the most part. Silently, Naruto agreed with his idol. His still rapidly growing intellect had caused the novelty of the pranks themselves to wear off. The chase was exhilarating, but coating animals in paint or defacing the Hokage Monument had definitely lost their luster in the sixteen hours or so since he first planned his prank and arrived in the Hokage's office.

On the other end, Hiruzen pondered if Naruto was acting out because his chance to live out his dream as a shinobi had been postponed _again_. The boy had talent, as he showed in order to get recommended to take the graduation exam early and proved them right with his stealth and ingenuity in escaping his middle ninja on a monthly basis. He merely lacked focus, as evidenced by his grades, and the necessary control over his chakra to perform the final academy jutsu required for him to graduate. For someone as headstrong as Naruto, this recent setback had to seem like the universe itself was plotting against him becoming Hokage one day.

"Naruto, I know that you may be feeling down because of what happened around the time of the Genin Exams," said the old sage, grabbing Naruto's attention almost instantly. "I express my most sincere regrets that you missed out on your opportunity in order to become a shinobi for this great village, but you cannot take out your frustrations in this way, anymore."

"It's just plain not fair! I'm better than anyone that graduated! I should be a shinobi, _I_ should be on my way to becoming Hokage!" exclaimed Naruto, letting out some previously unexpressed emotions.

Confirming both the Hokage's and his own suspicions about his emotional state, Naruto reset to his previous state of disinterest without a word. He may have boasted about such things before, but Naruto knew with his new abilities that he could take on any and every ninja his age or even years greater.

"Yes, while I'm sure you're confident in your abilities, you will have to wait just a little while longer, Naruto. I assure you, you will get your chance to prove yourself soon," said the Hokage in an attempt to placate his young ward.

"How soon? How many times do I have to try that stupid jutsu? How many more stupid history lectures-"

"Patience is a virtue, Naruto. Nothing good has ever come from haste. Though you were a day late this time, I'm more than certain you will surprise us all the next time your name is called," said Hiruzen.

"One day, huh?" asked Naruto, his posture slumping from the gravity of the situation. "Just one stinkin' day."

After a long pause, Hiruzen dismissed Naruto with the punishment of having to clean out the warehouse he stashed himself in previously. The two chuunin protested for a stricter sentence, but neither of them really had a case to make as they had been evaded by a genin for close to two hours.

As he made his way out of the Hokage Tower, through the streets of Konoha, and eventually back to his apartment, Naruto's mind wandered all over the place. His mood was slightly boosted when he realized his captors had forgotten to confiscate the two launchers he had taken, so he would be able to tinker with them to pass the time. It once again fell as he realized that he would likely have better places to actually _practice_ if he were a full blown genin instead. And the freefall continued as he realized that it pushed back his plans to become Hokage one day and finally get recognition.

Finally laying down in bed once more, Naruto asked himself, "How could one day change someone's life so much?"

* * *

 **A/N** : It seems like forever since I put out anything. It probably has. It sucks because this was actually mostly written in late March, but I hit some life snags that separated me from my metaphorical pen.

So, if you never read the original, welcome. If you have, you'll notice that this version starts much differently by avoiding the incident in the forest at all and instead seems to place Naruto in for another year of the academy. This idea works much better for my plotline.

Credit for the image in the story cover goes to **cwpetesch** of DeviantArt.

In any case, in addition to asking any and everyone to review if you have the chance, I'm also looking for a beta reader for all of my stories. Writing without anyone to sound ideas off of is painfully slow, and I could use someone to edit for any grammatical errors I may commit along the way. So, if you're interested, PM me please.


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